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Hollinger Corp. 
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X 




A POLITICAL LECTURE 



" Inflnence of Slavery on tlie Consti- 
tution and Union," 



DELIVERED AT THE REQUEST OP THE 



CI T I ZENS OF BROO KL Y N, 



Ol-'J". J^^OI^, ZEsci-, 



OS THE EVENING OC 



FRIDAY, THE 22d day of JUNE, 18G0, 



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BROOKLYN : 

a. SPOONBR, rifiSA/rf UOyli ANU JUU I'RIHTEH, " STAR OFFICE," OKANGE STREET, NEAR FCLTOt*. 

r 1S60. 



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Mr. President and Gentlemen. 

It may be considered by some out of place for an individual to 
appear on a public occasion like this before the citizens of this great 
City, without being heralded by an introduction by some political club 
or organization, accompanied by the usual concomitants of such as- 
semblages, such as musical bands, rockets, and other manifestations 
calculated to attract the public. But having been so frequently 
urged for the last two years to address you on the great questions 
of the day, I have not felt at liberty any longer to decline, acceding 
to your wishes. We meet therefore this evening, for the purpose 
of calmly and carefully reviewing the political field, and to examine 
into the actual facts of the case, and to draw a conclusion upon the 
arguments and the facts, as to the direction to which that duty 
points, in the coming Presidential Election. I am here as an Amer- 
ican citizen, who in common with yourself has a deep and abiding 
stake in the existence, prosperity and permanencji of our Union. 

As one of the descendants of the Heroes of the Revolution, of 
those who engaged in the struggle for Independence, from the first 
declaration, made at Charlotte, Meckelenberg Co., North Carolina, in 
May, 1775, and through the varying scenes of the Revolution, in 
the Battle scenes of Long Island, Princetown, Germantowu, Mon- 
mouth, and Yorktown, in all of which, those from whom I have 
sprung, bore an active, conspicuous, and prominent share in the 
events which brought that memorable contest to a successful termi- 
nation in " a blaze of glory." Apart from these considerations, I 
hold that it is meet and proper for every citizen, no matter how 
humble he may be, to contribute his share to the general judgment 
of the psople, in all cases of great public moment and exigency, 
such as this. I think I can safely say from my earliest youth, I 
have been an attentive observer of all the great public events, which 
have characterised my country, and have taken a most profound 
jnlerest in its history. Under these circumstances, I trust it will 
not be considered arrogant or intrusive on my part, if being sim- 



ply a private citizen, I assume the task, to enliglaten and inform, 
and direct the minds of the people of this, my adapted city. In my 
reading of the histories of the ancient Republics, there was one in- 
cident in that of Athens, which struck me with peculiar force. — 
"When there was an assemblage such as this, and the people were 
gathered, to listen to the discussions which arose in regard to the 
conduct of their public affairs, that meeting was opened by a solemn 
declaration by the presiding ofEcer, to the following effect : 

" May the Gods doom that man with all his race to perdition, 
who shall on this occasion, act, speak, or contrive anything against 
the State." 

I accept of this as a just and wise caution, to which I hold my- 
self amenable upon the present occasion. It is right, further, that I 
should premise, that I am not an Abolitionist, although in the words 
of the immortal Cowper " I would not have a slave to fan me 
whilst I sleep, and fear me when I wake, for all the gold Golconda's 
mines can yield." 

When I therefore say, I am no abolitionist, I do so under a 
profound conviction, " that eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, 
nor hath it entered into the mind of man, to conceive." A project 
for abolishing Slavery in these United States where it exists, that is 
in my judgment practicable, or likely in our day to be carried into 
effect. I, therefore, pass over that portion of the subject of Sla- 
very, and simply confine myself to such facts, as may be necessary 
to elucidate the crisis which is upon us, and here I may as well say, 
that I know no Republican who since the dawning of that party, to 
which I am proud to belong, has ever directly or indirectly, advoca- 
ted, expected, or intended, in anything which he has done or said, 
or proposed, or intended to propose, looking in our day to the abol- 
ishment of the Slavery of the now, more than four millions of people 
who are held as Slaves in our Southern States, and I think I can 
safely assure the laboring men of the Free States, that they may rest 
contented and secure in all theii- employments against any irruption 
of liberated Slaves from the South or elsewhere, by any act, meas- 
lu-e, or contrivance, of the great Republican Party of the Union. It 
is however a mistake which I desiie here to correct, that this ques- 
tion of Slavery i< one of recent origin. Hardly had the Constitu- 
tion of the United States been formed, before it was brought up in 
the Congress of the United States in the year IVOO, by a petition 
presenter] by Benjamin Franklin and others, (Quakers) prayino- 



Congress to do all in their power, to abolisli the Slave trade. The 
discussion which arose on this petition is to be found in Benton'3 
History of the debates in Congress. And there, among other things 
we discover, that Mr. Burke then a Representative in Congress from 
South Carolina, used this language ; " He was sure the commitment 
(of the petition to a CoOimittee to report upon) would sound an alarm 
and hloio the trumjjet of (^edition in the Southern State. ''^ with equal- 
ly strong expressions, by Mr. Smith of the same State, and Mr. Jack- 
son ot Georgia. 

Thus significantly foreshadowing, that doctrine now so pertina- 
ciously and solemnly put forth in our day. With these general reflec- 
tions I shall consider, what was the design and object of our fore- 
fathers, in establishing the Constitution under which we lite. Let 
me read its preamble. "We the people of the United States, in or- 
der to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic 
tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote th^ general 
welfare, aiid secure the blessings of liberty, to ourselves, and our pos- 
terity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States 
of America." 

Bear this in mind, that our Fathers declared, when they estab- 
lished this Constitutiou, as the sum and substance of all the rest, 
that its main object, purjjose and intent, was to secure the blessings 
of liberty, as contradistinguished from the curse of Slavery, to them, 
and to us, and those who shall come after us. 

Before that Constitution was adopted, whilst we existed as a 
Nation under the articles of Confederation, they ha : passed the cele- 
brated ordinance of 1787, by which they resolved, that from the 
date of its passage that Slavery, or iuvolunlary servitude, except for 
crime, should never exist in ?.ll the North Western Territory then 
owned by the United States. And whilst under the Confederation 
in Article 4th of that instrument they had adopted this import- 
ant provision ; 

"Article 4th.— The better to secure perpetual friendship and 
mutual intercourse among the people of the difierent States m this 
Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, vaga- 
bonds and fu<ntives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all 
privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States." And 
when they adopted the Constitution this important provision was 
incorporated into that instrument in Article 4th, Section 2d, placi- 
tive 1 in the following words : 



" Section 2(1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled t© all 
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." The 
confederation was adopted the 9th day of July, 1778. The Consti- 
tution was adopted, the l7th day of September, 1787, and with the 
amendments, on the 4th day of March.* 1 789. Whilst t^e subject 
of the petitions by the Quakers, and Benjamin Franklin, was before 
Congress in March, 1790, EHas Boudinot, M. C, from the State of 
New Jersey in answer to these gentlemen, Burke, Smith and Jack- 
son, said : 

"But when these gentlemen attempt to justify this unnatural 
traffic, (the Slave trade) or to prove the lawfulness- of Slavery, they 
should advert to the genius of our government, and the principles of 
the Revolution." By the declaration of Congress of 1775, setting 
forth the causes and necessity of taking up arms, they say, " If it 
was possible for men who exercise their reason to believe, that the 
divine Author of our existence intended a part of the human race to 
hold an absolute property in and an unbounded power over others, 
marked out by his Infinite Goodness and Wisdom, as the objects of 
a legal domination, never rightfully resist&ble, however severe and 
oppressive, the inhabitants of these Colonies, might at least require 
from the Parliament of Great Britain, some evidence that this dread- 
ful authority over them had been granted to that body." This was 
coupled with a quotation from the Declaration of Independence 
and the assertion then made by him, and not contradicted by any 
Southern Member of Congress on that floor, and ratified subsequent- 
ly by the report of the Committee to whom these petitions were re- 
ferred, together with the preamble of the Constitution itself, which I 
have already quoted, establish the important fact, that the Fathers 
of our Constitution, understood its object primarily to be, as I have 
asserted, for Liberty. With this chart before us, and with the pas- 
sage of the act of Congress under the Constitution, recognizing and 
giving vitality to the ordinance of 1787, Ave come down to the year 
1803 when Congress authorized Mr. Jeflerson, by appropriating the 
sum of two millions of dollars to purchase from the Emperor of 
France and King of Spain, the Floridas, and the Territory of Louis- 
iana. Mr. Jetlersou naturally timid supposed that it would be ne- 
cessary after he had concluded his treaty with the Great Napoleon 
for the cession of Louisiana, to have an amendment of the Constitu. 
tion passed to authorize its incorporation into the territories of the 
Union. But after reflection, it was concluded to submit the matter 



to Congress, and the Treaty Avas ratified and confirmed without op- 
position by the Senate. But it was not until 1819, that the Flori- 
das were subsequently added to our Territory. When Louisiana 
was admitted by that Treaty as a part of our Territory, it was stip- 
ulated by it, that the people then in the Territory, should when they 
formed a State Government be admitted into the Union, upon the 
footing of one of the original States, and with the express right to 
hold their property in the Slaves then in the Territory. At that 
time according to computation, there were but about forty thousand 
slaves in the whole extent of that Territory, which included within 
its boundaries all the land from the Gulf Stream, west of the Mis- 
sissippi, stretching North to the 47th degree of latitude. South to 
Mexico, and North-west including Oregon, to the Pacific Ocean, a 
couutry greater in extent than the original thirteen States of the 
Union. Louisiana was admitted as a State under this compact in 
the year 1806, No opposition was made to her admission as a 
State, but it was fondly hoped that Slavery would be satisfied, and 
the peace of the nation preserved. In 1818, however, 28 years 
thereafter, after the discussion in Congress, Missouri presented her 
claims to the consideration of Congress, as entitled to admission, as 
one of the States of the Union, with a Slave Constitution. This pro- 
position on her part, naturally, excited an intense feeling through- 
out the Union, and the public mind which had been at rest since 
the discussion in Congress in 1790, before mentioned, rose to fever 
heat under this new eftort of the advocates of Slavery, to wrest the 
Constitution from its true spirit and intent and to engraft upon it the 
curse of Slavery. Such was the force of this impression upon the 
public mind everywhere in the free States, that meetings were held^ 
and the project denounced. Under that spirit, this great State chose 
as one of its representatives to the Senate of the United States, Ru- 
fus King, a name synonymous with liberty and freedom 

Mr. King was at that time, designated as a Federalist, as 
such, he was immensely in the minority of the people of this State, 
but laying aside all party bias, and feeling the just inspiration of a 
noble spirit, our Legislature chose him with unprecedented unanimity. 
Missouri was that year rejected. At length, in 1820, after the most 
violent and excited Legislative contests, on the second day of March, 
1820, she was admitted under the solemn compact, styled the Mis. 
souri compromise. The great heart of the Nation then became 
calm, the line of demarkation between Freedom and Slavery, in that 
great territory, was fixed by the act of Congress, admitting her into 



the Union at the thirty sixth degree, tliirty minutes parallel of north 
latitude. This act was passed by the votes of three-fourths of 

THE southern SE.VATORS IN THE SENATE, AND BY 76 VOTES OF SOUTH- 
ERN REPRESENTATIVES in the Congress of the United States, out of the 
NINETY VOTES which it received on its passage. Under that Compro- 
mise, the State of Arkansas south of that line, -with a slavery Con- 
stitution, was admitted into the Union. Under that Compromise 
the State of Florida, with a slave Constitution, was in like manner 
admitted. Under that compact the State of Texas, in like manner, 
was admitted into the Union. And here I desire to say a word or 
two to that State, her people and representatives in the Senate and 
House of Representatives. Amongst those who advocated her re- 
annexation to and incorporation with the United States, I bore a 
prominent and conspicuous position, and received for it from her 
enemies the most abundant abuse, of which the Tribune of that 
day will furnish the evidence in part. Now if there was any State 
in the Union under a moral and political obligation to the Free 
States, it is Texas. But for these, she might have howled like her 
wolves in the wilderness for protection, and for fraternity, unheeded 
and neglected. In my opinion it ill becomes her people, to talk of 
disunion ; she of all others, a frontier State, has the deepest stake in 
preserving the Union, which shields her at once from her for- 
eign and domestic foes. 

Now be it observed, that up to this period, although the repre- 
sentatives in Congress from the Free States, largely outnumbered 
the representatives from the Slave States in the House of Represen- 
tatives, and equalled them in the Senate, yet no man could be found 
in the Northern States, where, thank God, the spirit of liberty and 
true honor has dwelt from the day of their first settlement, and 
where it has been consiantly and uniformly opposed to Slavery, 
could a man brazen enough be found to propose directl)^ or indirect- 
ly, the abrogation of that peace giving and time honored compact- 
Nay, when in 1850, in the midst of another excitement, when the State 
of California was added to the other free States of the Union, by which 
the Senate's "equilibrium" was destroyed, no eff"ort was ever made 
directly or indirectly in any degree to interfere with that same com- 
pact. It was not theretore until 1854, after the election of General 
Pierce, by an unprecedented and unlooked for majority, that a man 
was to be found in all these free States, so base, so reckless, as to 
touch by any legislative proposition or act, that which had calmed 



the nation's fears, and the apprehensions of her free men, that inaii 
was found at last, in Stephen Arnold Doughis. lie who as Chair- 
man of the Committee on Teriitorics had but one year before in his 
report as Chairman upon the Territories, denounced in the most em- 
phatic words, his own act, and his own infamy ! Yes, he fell from 
bis hig-h estate, a? a noble representative of a free community, bow 
ed himself down at the footstool of ^hlvery, and S'old his birthriglit 
for a mess of pottage !* AVhen this measure of his was brought for- 
ward in the United States Senate, the public mind was stricken as 
if by paralysis. Upon the passage of this act tlirough the Sen- 
ate and the House, the Genius of Liberty rose in arms, and fronl 
that time to this the irrepressible contiict between Liberty and Sla- 
very, has been carried on with unabated ardor. Nor in my judg- 
ment will it cease until that party which has been called into ex- 
istence by its necessity, shall in the exercise of its constitutional 
power, as the gieat and only Republican party of the Union, place 
Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin in the Presidency and Vice 
Presidency of the United States. In referring to the events which 
have transpired since 1820, I have omitted a most signiticant and 
material fact. 

In 1833, this lynx-eyed slave-power, that never sleeps, with the' 
stealthiness that characterizes fraud, approached the hero of New 
Orleans, then the President of the United States — I have reason to 
believe that the suggestion came, in part, from a deceased friend 
from Geofgia, Avho was, I believe, then, Attorney General of the 
United States — it was whispered into General Jackson's ears-,' eve'r 
open to honest ambition, that it would fender his name still more 
a'lorious, if he would gather together on the west bank of the Mis- 
sissippi all the Indian tribes of the nation, then scattered through 
the several States; arrd then was formed that vast Indian territory 
which, originally, as you see upon the map of Kansas-Nebraska, exj 
tending from the thirty-fourth degree of north latitude, to the forty- 
eighth and a half degree, a distance of fourteen and a halt degrees^ 
along the entire Mississippi front of that territorv. These Indian set- 
tlements and resel-vations, uirder that act, were made and intended by 
those who conceive i this project, as barriers, that should forever 
shut out the free and hardy settlers of the North, under the Missouri 
compromise, and prevent them from ever holding one solitary foot 
of land in that territory, which, by that compact, had been set apaf§ 
and conseciated to their use. This monstrous iniquity and fiaud 

* Douglass has since been throv/n cverbaard bj his Southern arast^'re. 



10 

upon the free people of tlie itoysli, was passed, at a time, wlien tLeir 
inmd.s were directed from its true object by political contests on 
other subjects of unparalleled animation and contention ; and in 
this way, upon the Himsy pretext that these were solemn compacts 
and treaties existing between the United States and the Indiao 
tribes, which could not be honorably disturbed, it was expected that 
this league of Indians would present, forever, an impassible frontier 
barrier to the foot.nteps of civilization, improvement and liberty ! and 
thus, had not Southern cupidity, itself, burst the bonds it irfiposed 
open the North, any attempt upon the part of Congress or of the 
Executive, to have altered, annulled, or changed these treaties, and 
toabrogat3 this act of March 30th, 1834, would have been met m 
Congress by the most determined hostility ! I need not further re- 
fer to the scene, so fresh in your minds, of the struggles which have 
lollowed in the public mind since the repeal of that Missouri com- 
promise in 1854. Out of that struggle grew the present great Re- 
publican party of the nation, .Kirig» County, ever animated by the 
sentiments of liberty, at a meeting of her citizens, chose Dele- 
gates to represent her in the Anti Nebraska Convention, which was 
to meet at Saratoga of this State, in August of that year, and among 
others selected, the humble individual who stands before you, as one 
of those Delegates. That Convention adjourned from Saratoga to 
Auburn, the residence of one of the ablest, purest and nobleststates- 
men of our country, William II. Seward. I pause here for a single 
moment, because I cannot resist it. Among the ancient Athenians 
there was one citizen conspicuous above all others by his private 
and his public life, that was Aristides, the just. He too had been 
assailed by enemies, and as was the custom of those days among 
them, where any one had been guilty of a public crime or oftence. 
It was usual to propose his banishment from Athens. Certain days 
were allotted for this purpose. On one of these, Aristides passing 
through one of the streets, was met by a simple fisherman, who held 
in his hand a shell which at that day answered the place of our bal- 
lot. He said to him, "I am nnable to write, but you put into this 
shell, ' for banishment,' " upon which Aristides with great surprise 
turned to the fisherman, and said " What has Aristides done to 
you," " I do not know him," said the fisherman, " but I want you 
to write it, for lam tired of hearing Mm called the JiistT At that 
Convention where, as its record will show, I Avas honored with its 
confidence, this great j arty received for the fiist lime in its history 



a 

tKtt honorel name which it now bears. On that occasion in the 
3nid-t of an excited debate, assailed as I was by the able men there 
present, who differed from me. I dictated a resolution to a friend 
of mine on the spot, which was handed to Dr^ Snodgrass, and pass- 
ed by my consent, and will be found in the records of that Conven- 
tiinron ihe 26th of Scptembe*-, 1854^ in the following words : 

" Dr. Snodgrass moved to call this The Republican Organiza- 
tion (party )-. Carried.'" — See file of New York Herald^ September 
27th, 185 4-. 

Thus the honor of inaugurating this new party justly and truly 
belongs to Kings County. I claim it for her and not for mvself, 
and I defy tlu; records of any other Convention held in opposition to 
the repeal of that Missouri Compromise, to shew the passage of any 
4-esolution adopting the name of Republican Party, anterior to this. 
From hence I now proceed to call your attention to some prorainsnt 
facts in the history of Slavery in the United States. 

1st. I charge it with nearly involvmg the nation in a fraternj^ 
war in 1832, by the nullification of an act of the Congress of the 
United States, under the leadership of John 0. Calhoun. That 
man, ot whom General Jackson said to me : " Sir, I look upon John 
0. Calhoun as the most dangerous man in the United States, he has 
attempted to thwart my administration ; he has endeavored to rup- 
ture our Union ; he has sown the curse, broadcast, of disunion ; he 
has tried to consolidate the whole South, as one people, in opposi- 
tion to their brethren of the North, so as to control our Leo-islation 
and the Democratic Party of the Country, the evils of these will 
yet be manifest in the future history of our Country." I charge 
Slavery with having demoralized, first, the Church of Christ, l*- 
has split into sections all the religious denominations of our Countiy' 
except the Roman Catholic and the Episcopalian. I chai-ge it, se- 
condly, with attempting to organize sectional and geographical dis- 
tinctions, under the name of the South, unknown to the Constitu- 
tion and repugnant to its letter and its spirit. I charge it, thirdlv, 
with having actually abrogated that provision of the Confederation 
and the Constitution, to which I have already adverted and quoted 
from those instruments. I charge it, fourthly', with unconstitution- 
al opposition in the Senate, by opposing competent and fit persons 
appointed to public office by tlie Presidents of the United States^* 
and give as a memorable example, the fact that wht-n the Uonorable 
Edvv-a.rd Everett, wns named as Minister to Great Britain, that his 



13; 

confirmation for that post was opposed, in the Senate, because he 
had expressed, in his mild way, some sentiments unfavorable to sla- 
very; and I venture the assertion, that amongst tlie a'chives of tlio 
Senate, should they be examined, many cases like his would be 
found. 

Fifthly, I charge it with unconstitutional practices, in the Senate, 
in two important particulars : 1st, In proscribing and setting aside 
Stephen A. Douglas, as its chairman on the territories, because he 
]iad refused to be bound by and to admit the decision of the Su- 
preme Couit of the United States, in the Dred Scott case, as bind- 
ing iipon the people of the territories, upon the question of slavery', 
Rud, here, in this category, I arraign them, with having acted un- 
constitutionally and against its spirit, in the formation at the last 
and present Session of Congress, of its committees, these consist of 
twenty-one or twenty-two, upon eighteen of these, the leading 
AND MOST IMPORTANT ONES, they havc placed Southern men at 
their heads, leaving but three minor unimportant committees, to 
their fellow Northern Democrats in that body ! I charge it, sixth- 
ly, with unconstitutionally opposing every measure of national im- 
portance, which was intended to foster and protect the free labor 
and industry of the Country. I charge it with having opposed, 
Avith its entire strength, the emigration of free labor into our Coun- 
try. 

Here I cannot but express ray surprise at the conduct of our 
(Irish) adopted citizen.^, that they should be found in the ranks of 
the so-called Democracy, as the allies of the p/ro-slavery men of the 
South. From 1818 to this day the Southern Senators and Hepre- 
sentatives in Congress, as a body have voted boih in the Senate aud 
in the House, against every Tariff Bill calculated to protect the la- 
boring and manufacturing classes of the North. In 1842, by the 
most persevering efforts of myself and my friends, after the country 
had suft'ei-ed from two specie suspensions of the banks under Mr. 
Clay's compromise bill of 1832-3 we succeeded in having passed 
the Tariff of 1842. At that time there were over one hundred and 
fifty thousand Irish adopted citizens in the Stale of Pennsylvania 
alone, entirely dependant for their living upon the manufactures in 
that State, and there were in the City and County of Philadelphia, 
not less than ten thousand dyers, spinners, and weavers, in absolute 
distress for the necessaries of life from the effects of tliat Tariff bili 
of 18»2-3, In four years, a most remarkable and extraordinarv re- 



IB 

action in the irade and commerce of tlie country, occurred undcf 
that Tariff of 1842. By it, all the foreign exchanges were turned 
into our favor, the wheels of industry were again put into motion, 
and the sails of commerce unloosened, and prosperity shed her gold- 
en inffiience once more over our prosperous country. Then it ">va3 
that Mr. Robert L ^Yalker,* Secretary of the 'J'reasury under Mr. 
Jas. K. Polk, with the aid of tlse Democratic Rapresentative^ and 
Senators from the South, brought forward and passed the Tariff' of 
18i0, which but for two circumstances, each independent of the prin* 
ciple upon whiv.-h it was founded, of the famine in Ireland, and upon 
the Continent of Europe, and the discovery of the gold mines of 
California, only saved us from undergoing a new suspen5ion of tlic 
industrial pursuits of the nation, and national bankruptcy as before. 
One of these causes has already passed away, whilst the other, the 
gold mines, yet contribute iheir store to pay the balance of trade to 
Europe. But even with this aid we have suffered another suspension 
of specie payments, whilst the whole trade of the country has been 
languishing for the last three years from its competition with for* 
eign manufactures in our own markets. Thus the extraordinary 
spectacle has beqn presented, of a people whose vital interests were 
involved in the support of measures calculated to afford them pro- 
tection in their labor and industrial puisuits, actucdhj forming in the 
Northern Stafe.'f, a league iijitJt their bitterest enemies, and constitu- 
ting nearly tltree- fourths of their rank and fie, and we hare seen 
Mr. Charles O'Conner himself, an Irishman, who, with the rest of his 
countrymen, have groaned under the oppression and injustice of 
Great Britain for eight hundred years, absolutely standing up before 
the public, at the Academy of Music, and proclaimining that " slav- 
ery " was wise, betieficient and just ; when he knew from the histo- 
ry of his own countrymen, what thev had endured in their quassi 
slavery state, under the despotism of England. 

I charge it, seventhly, with having demoralized the two great par- 
ti-es of the country. 1st, In regard to the great Whig party, whom 
it consigned to oblivion, and death ; when the Whig Senators in 
Congress, from the Southern States, voted in favor of the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise, and in caucus instructed the Southern 
Whig Representatives in Congress to vote in favor of it. 2dly, By 
compelling all the great Whig leaders in the Southern States, to 
abandon the political faith and creed which they had held for years, 
and to enrol themselves amongst the so-called Democratic party, as» 

*0f Mississippi. 



u 

tints I Govet'nol* Wise, of Virginia; Governor Jones, of TeiinesSG 5 
Senators Hunter, Toombs and Benjamin, and others of less note, 
liow in the Senate, and in the House ; and with having proscribed 
and pi>t undei' the ban, amongst others, the illustrious, the eloquent? 
John G. Crittenden, of Kentucky, and Governor Oell of Tonnesse I 
and a host of others, whose names, talents and accomplishments 
•would have adorned any party. And iagtly, I charge it with enter- 
taining the fixed and deliberate design to di^i'upt this Union, and to 
overthrow the Constitution, Avhich our Fathers made. 

That I do not misrepresent this, let me call your attention to the 
proceedings of a meeting in favor of Mr. Douglas, lately held in the 
great metropolin=, across yonder river. Bear with mo a moment 
■whilst I read to you trom a report of the proceedings of that meet- 
ing, in the Herald, particularly the speech of Mr. Foote, Ex-Gover- 
nor of Mississippi. Hear what he says, in these several extracts, 
from his speech, on that occasion t 

"The Union of these States is said to be in danger; and it is 
not lightly said, but most seriously asserted. That thi^ Union is in 
danger I have long thought; and, although I know that some arc 
in the habit of considering all language of this sort,as either empty 
menace or mere vaporing declamation, yet I assure you that every 
sage statesman in America that I have heard say anything tipou 
this subject lor the last twelve months, has concurred in the emphatic 
declaration of op,inion, that the Union ot these states, established by 
the blood and wisdom of our sacred forefathers, is in imminent peril. 
I shall not give you a catalogue of great names upon this point, but 
I will state — by way of illustration nierely, for I can do no n)ore on 
the present occasion — the fact, that only about six months siiice, I 
was in the City of Washington, and had an interview of a truly in" 
teresting character with my venerable fiiend, the Secretary of State, 
Gan. Cass, in the progress of which he stated deliberately to me, 
what I am authorized now to state to you, but he was so well satis- 
fied that this union was in danger, that he painfully apprehended 
that aged as he was, and feeble as his physicfd health was, he should 
himself survive the Union which he loved sj dearly. The gentle- 
man now contesting with Mr. Douglas, so fiercely, in the Senate of 
the United States, (Mr. Davis), that gentleman is well known to 
head a body of individuals who have declared, long ago, their earn- 
est desire to break up the Union of these States, on the occasion 
of any one of certain events specifiPil by them, outside of what 



15 

was known as the Union platform of tlie State of Mississippi and 
^'lie State of Georgia, and, in fact, of the Avliole Soutli, in the year 
1851. I beg- to remind you of an important historic fact, that 
wlieu Mr. Davis, Mr, Qnitman and others, Mr. Donald, of Georgia, 
and Mr. Illiett, of South Carolina, with the whole body of seces- 
sion cliiefs ot that period — and I use the term not reproachfully, 
but for hi historic coi'rectness — Avhen thej urged upon the South 
Avith one voice, in unmistakable language, that the Union, itself, 
should be dissolved, that the Southern States of the confederacy 
sho'.ild withdraw, on account of the admission of California, and 
other enactments associated therewith, the Union men of the States 
I have mentioned, calmed the intense excitement then raging in the 
land, by means of a compact, iu which they solemnly and deliber- 
ately united, called the Georgia and Mississippi platform, but adopt- 
ed by every Southern State in the confederacy, so far as I recollect, 
including Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina, 
and solemnly agreed, that if our appeal to the party anxious to 
dissolve the Union — proposing, as Governor Quitman had done in 
his last messaage, and sanctioned by every man in Mississippi, 
the prompt and peaceable secession of the people of the State of 
Mississippi, on account of the measures adopted in 1850, unless some 
additional constitutional guaranty, to use his veiy language, should 
be accorded to the Southern States, deemed by him to be in great 
peril in consequence of these recent enactments, should induce our 
friends generally to agree to acquiesce in these enactments, ive 
loould solemnbj pledge ourselves^ and that pledge is embodied in the 
platfor7n referred to, that in the event of the Congress of the United 
States ever abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, ever ex- 
cluding slavery from the Territories, ever repealing the provisions of 
the fugitive slave law, ever interfering with the trade in slaves between 
btate and State, ever refusing to a<lmit a new State into this Union 
on account of slavery wlihln its limits, toe 'would ourselves lake the 
initiative in the work o? disunion. That was the position of the 
Union men in the South, in 1851 and I beg you to consider it. 'ihey 
stand solemnly pledged before God and their countrymen to take the 
initiative in the work of dissolving this Union if any one of these 
enactments shall be passed. It is a very grave matter." 

I will not further detain you with the many extracts I have ot 
Southern Statesmen's speeches, and Southern politicians acts, going 
to establish tids fact. There is but one tone of declamation kejit up 



16 

by tlie whole Democratic party, North as well as South, and that 

is, THAT NOTHIXG BUT SUBMISSION TO THE SUCCESS OF THAT PARTY,- 

which \(hi now well know, me^ns nothing but slavery! and the ex- 
tension of it, can possibly save the nation from the impending strug- 
gle for a dissolution of the union ! As significant of this fact, let me 
call your attention to the remarks of the Hciaorable Caleb Gushing, 
on opening the present Baltimore Convention. He said : 

'' We assemble here now at a time when the enemies of the Dem.- 
ocratic party — when, let me ?ffy, the enemies of the Constitution of 
the United States are in the field, with their selected leaders, 
Avith their banners displayed, advancing to combat with the' 
Constitution, interests, and party of the United States ; and upon 
you, gentlemen, upon your action, upon your spirit of harmony, upon 
your devotion to the Constitution, upon your solicitude to maintaiu 
the interests, the honor, and the' integrity of the Demociatic party, 
as the guardian of the Constitution ; upon yoil, gentlemen, it de- 
pends whether the issue of that combat is to be Victoty or Defeat for 
ike ConstitUtic/)i cff the United .%tat€sP 

For these reasons, with others, 1 am a Republican". Had I 
time, I could demonstrate, by the most accurate tables; j^is exhibited 
in the career of all of the States of the Union, the difference be- 
tween Slavery and Freedom, but I will refer only to Arkansas and 
Michigan; and will confine myself to a simple statement from an au- 
thentic source — Debau's Re'iew — wherein he says : 

" Many com[>arisons might be drawn betv?een the free and the' 
slave States, e4tlier of which should be sufficient to satisfy any man' 
that slavery is not only ruinous to free labor and enterprise, but in- 
jurious to morals, and blighting to the soil where it exists. The 
comparison between the States of Michigan and Arkansas, which 
were admitted into the Union at the same time, will fairly illustrate 
the difference and value of free and slave labor, as well as the diff- 
erence of moral and intellectual progress, in a free and ?n a slave 
State. 

"In 183G, those young stars were admitted into the constella- 
tion of the Union. Michigan with one-half the extent of territory 
of Arkansas, challenQ;ed her sister State for a twenty years' race, 
and named as her rider, 'Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, 
unless for the punishment of crime, shall ever be tolerated in this 
State.' Arka':'sas accepted the challenge, and named as her rider, 
'The General Assembly shall have -no power to pass laws for the 



IT 

emancipation of slaves without the consent of the owners.' Thus 
mounted, these two States, the one free, and the other slave, start- 
ed together twenty years ago, and now, having arrived at the end 
of the proposed race, let us review and niark the progress ot each. 
Michigan comes out in 1850 with three times the population of slave 
Arkansas, witJt, fiee times the assessed value of farms, farmimi im- 
plements and machinery, and with eight times the number of public 
schoulsP 

What farther example do you need to stimulate you to become 
Republicans. Either yon must conquer in the impending battle 
for liberty, or surrender forever, your rights and dignity as Free- 
men, and pass under the yoke of Slavery ! 

During the campaign of 1856, I had occasion to write a letter 
to some gentlemen of the South, who had uttered threats in favor 
of the dissolution of the Union, from which I make an extract, and 
I trust in God, that it will sink deep into the hearts and minds of 
all Americans, in all parts of our country, who contemplate, an- 
nounce, or propose a dissolution of the Union in any event : 

" Already the passions of the people, raised to their utmost ten- 
sion, require the most skilful management to prevent an outbreak, 
which would annihilale our Union in fraternal blood! Woe to that 
man and that voice, be he or it high or low, who brings about such 
■ a cahimity : For then 

" We should see 
One spirit of the first-born Cain 
Eeign in all bosoms ! that each heart 
Being set on bloody courses, tlie rude scene 
Woidd end in univei-sul ruin, and 
Darkness wliehu in everiasting night, 
The glorious lights of human liberty and Freedom !" 



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